Thu Apr 10 14:52:00 2008

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Poulter aces his way to early Masters lead

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Augusta, GA (Sports Network) - Ian Poulter aced the par-three 16th hole on Thursday en route to a two-under 70 and the early lead during the first round of The Masters at Augusta National.

Poulter's ace was the first at the Masters since Trevor Immelman made a hole- in-one at 16 in the 2005 event.

Sandy Lyle, the 1988 Masters champion, and Soren Hansen are both two-under, but have not yet made the turn.

Mark O'Meara, a Champions Tour player and 1998 Masters champion, Peter Lonard and Heath Slocum are in the clubhouse at one-under-par 71.

Tiger Woods, the four-time winner, has made nine consecutive pars to open his round.

The No. 1 player in the world saw a winning streak of seven consecutive worldwide events snapped earlier this year at Doral, but openly talked about the possibility of winning a single-season Grand Slam.

"The reason why I said that, you have to understand why I said that, because I've done it before," said Woods on Tuesday, referring to the "Tiger Slam" where he held all four major titles at once, just not during the same calendar year. "I think this is my 12th or 13th season out here, and nine of those years I've won five or more tournaments, so just got to win the right four. That's what it boils down to."

Poulter is in the top position now and made noise of his own earlier in 2008.

He stated that he felt he could make a run at Woods and his No. 1 ranking. Poulter later claimed the quotes were taken out of context, but thinks a big move up the rankings is possible.

"If I can play like I did today, then certainly anything is achievable," said Poulter, who is 24th in this week's rankings. "I don't think any pressure has been put on me. I obviously want to play golf well all the time and there's no better stage to play golf than the Masters."

Poulter, an Englishman known for wild outfits, birdied the par-five second hole. He rattled off 13 straight pars, but was well in the hunt since no one fared better than minus-three.

At the 16th, Poulter played his tee shot with an eight-iron almost 25 feet right of the hole. The ball used the bank and rolled all the way into the hole for the 19th ace in Masters history.

"Any hole-in-one is a nice one, but to do it on 16 with all those spectators to the left-hand side, it's a great amphitheater to have a hole-in-one," he said. "It gave me a great boost and a great adrenaline rush. It was pretty special."

It could not have helped much. Poulter bogeyed the 17th to fall into a tie for the lead. He parred the 18th and got sole possession of first after O'Meara bogeyed the last.

"The greens are very tricky, they're very, very fast and we always know what two-under par does, where that puts yourself on the first day of the Masters," said Poulter. "You're in good position. It's a good round of golf."

O'Meara appeared to be in bad shape with three bogeys and a birdie before "Amen Corner." O'Meara torched the three famous holes with three birdies, then traded a birdie and a bogey for his share of second.

"Obviously 51 years of age, one-under par, I played all right," said O'Meara. "I made a couple of bad putts. I birdied 11, 12, and 13; that's always nice when you get around those holes."

Defending champion Zach Johnson is in the mix. He is one-under and playing the back nine.

Phil Mickelson, who has won two of the last four Masters, Vijay Singh, who picked up the green jacket in 2000, and Ernie Els tee off Thursday afternoon.